Vocabulary exercises

Exercise 1. Name 5-10 foodstuffs you might buy at:

1) a grocery; 2) a sweet-shop; 3) a butcher’s; 4) a fruiterer’s; 5) a greengrocer’s; 6) a fishmonger’s; 7) an off-licence shop; 8) a baker’s.

Exercise 2. We can say grocer (=the person or the shop) or grocer’s (=the shop). How many of the words from the focus vocabulary can be treated the same way?

Exercise 3. Match the words from the box with the correct definitions.

Supermarket		Convenience store			Corner shop
Bakery	Butcher’s		Delicatessen	Off licence		Market

1. A small local shop, usually on the corner of a street that sells food, alcohol, magazines, etc.

2. A large shop that sells a wide range of things, especially food, cleaning materials and other things that people buy regularly.

3. An area outside where people buy and sell many different types of things.

4. A shop that sells bread and cakes, especially one that also makes bread and cakes.

5. A shop that sells high quality food such as cheeses and cold meats, often from different countries.

6. A shop in your local area that sells food, alcohol, magazines etc. And is often open 24 hours a day.

7. A shop that sells beer, wine and other alcoholic drinks which you drink at home.

8. A shop that sells meat.

Exercise 4. Study the plan of a supermarket and do the task below.

Where do you think the following items on the shopping list can be found?

1. Salami, caviar	4. Champagne	7. Cream crackers
2. Food for your dog	5. Butter	8. Corned beef
3. Tea, coffee	6. Rice, oats	9. A tin of sardines

Read the text and say why Elinor Lloyd prefers doing shopping in a big supermarket.

At the Supermarket

At the week-ends, when she has more time to spare, Elinor Lloyd does her shopping at the big self-service food stores in town, for she can buy a lot of goods more cheaply there than at her local grocer’s. Accompanied by her husband or her daughter she walks round the co-operative supermarket and other large food stores looking for bargains.

These large self-service stores are brightly-lit and usually well laid out. The goods are tidily arranged on trays and long shelves on which the various prices are clearly marked. There is plenty of room for the customers to walk about.

The shelves are well stocked with a very wide selection of attractively packed goods – everything from quick-frozen food to washing powder, from shoe polish to new-laid eggs, from tinned fish to toothpaste. Elinor walks from shelf to shelf, filling her wire basket. She has to be careful when shopping in a self-service store for the goods are so attractively displayed that she is tempted to buy things she does not need or cannot really afford.

Elinor goes to the cash desk, where there is a short queue. When it is her turn the cashier reckons up the bill on a cash register. Before getting the bus home, she goes to the market. It is large, with well over a hundred different stalls; part of it is covered, part of it open-air. A wide range of clothes, household goods, fruit and vegetables is on sale and prices are often considerably lower than in the ordinary shops.

She arrives home exhausted but a little proud of having saved forty or fifty pence of the housekeeping money.

Exercise 1. Find in the text equivalents to the following words and phrases:

1) иметь побольше свободного времени; 2) в сопровождении; 3) искать выгодные покупки; 4) магазин самообслуживания; 5) товары, аккуратно расположенные на подносах; 6) чётко проставленные цены; 7) много места для прохода покупателей; 8) испытывать соблазн; 9) цены значительно ниже; 10) деньги на домашнее хозяйство.

Exercise 2. Complete the sentences below with words from the text.

1. Elinor does her shopping ___ in town. 2. She walks round the supermarket looking for ___. 3. Large self-service stores are ___ and well ___. 4. ___ are tidily arranged on trays and long shelves. 5. The shelves are ___ with ___ of packed goods. 6. Elinor goes to ___ where there’s a short queue. 7. When it is her turn the cashier ___ the bill on a cash register. 8. The market is large, with well ___. 9. A wide range of fruit and vegetables is ___. 10. Elinor arrives home proud of having saved forty or fifty pence of ___.

Exercise 3. Answer the following questions.

1. Why does Elinor do part of her shopping at the big self-service stores in town?

2. What can she buy there?

3. Why does she have to be careful when shopping at such stores?

4. Where does Elinor go before getting the bus home?

5. How big is the market?

6. What sort of goods are on sale there?

7. What is Elinor proud of?

□ WRITING

Read the letter

Dear Ann,

Please forgive my delay in writing. I had a lot of work to do. Try to get into my moccasins, will you? In this letter I’d like to tell you how to shop in this country.

In America, just as in England, you see the same shops with the same boards and windows in every town and village.

Shopping, however, is an art of its own and you have to learn slowly where to buy various things. If you are hungry, you go to the chemist’s. A chemist’s shop is called a drug-store in the United States: it is a national institution at that. In the larger drug-stores you may be able to get drugs, too, but their main business consists in selling stationery, candies, toys, braces, belts, fountain pens, furniture and imitation jewellery. Every drug-store has a food counter with high stools in front of it and there they serve various juices, coffee, sundaes, ice-cream, sandwiches, omelettes and other egg dishes.

If you want cigarettes, go to the grocer’s; if you want to have your shoes cleaned, go to the barber’s; if you want a radio, go to a man’s shop; if you want a case, go to the chemist’s.

All for now. I hope you are interested in it. I’m looking forward to your answer.

Yours, Paul.

Now choose one of these situations and write a letter to your friend.

1. You are writing to your friend from another country. Tell him / her about shopping in your country.

2. You have gone abroad for your vacations. Write to your friend how to shop in that country.

• OUT-OF-CLASS LISTENING